Process of producing gas.



F. E. PINK.

PROCESS OF PRODUCING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 10, 1911.

1,031,781. Patented July 9,1912.

EXPLOSION DOOR GAS OUTLET RECEPTACLE INVENTOR Ennssr E. Finn Y wwrvs ATTEST 'ess of producing gas from coal or other 'candescent fire in the bed of coal until all a high and uniform standard from start to gass s:

ro mnsr n. FINK, or :sUcYnus, o'mo.

rnoonss or rnonncrne GAS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, E nREsT E. Firm, citizen of the United States, residing at Bucyrus, in the county of Crawford and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsjin Processes of Producing Gas, of'which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved procfuels, and particularly bituminous coal, using a gas producer of my own 1I1VI1t1011 and the ob ect of my vimproved process is nomical manner, a fixed clean gas, free from tar, lampblack and other impurities, by steps involving a single charging of the producer with a deep bed of coal sufficient to last several days or a week, and in maintaining a downwardly shifting zone of inthe coal is consumed and without feeding or replenishing the supply of coal throughout the entire run after the first 'or extreme top zone of incandescent fire is established.

Obviously, 'my process advantageously maintains an unv aryi ng Condition of fire, and consequently causes a continuous and uniform generation of gas of unvarying composition, and the quality of the gas is of finish of gas-producing operations. Continuous or intermittent charging of-the producer being eliminated during a single long run, the cost of the gas is brought low due to the minimum amount of labor required to operate the producer, and for the further reason that a saving of coal is also efi ected, that is, there it not the Waste of coal incident to charging operations of other processes known to me to produce the heat of combustion of the. coal in converting it into gas, as no further feeding or charging of. coal is practised by me after the first zone of fire has been established.

In the accompanying drawing, the singlefigure represents a sectional view of an improved gas producer of my own invention which is particularly adapted to carry out my process in a highly efiicient manner and with the best results, but itmust be under-,

stood that any other simple and etficient ap- I paratus may be used, providing the construction and arrangement-o1 parts permits the Werls g of the pr ess As sh n, .1

Specification of Letters latent.

- however, the producer comprises a casing 2 of any suitable form having the requisite dimensions to hold abed of cdal ct sufiicient depth for the continuous production of gas for several days (or a week or more) without replenishmentof coal during that entire period. Casing 2 islined internally with firebrick 3 or other suitable material and the upper end of the fire-lining is preferably of conical form although this may be otherwise arranged. A cover 4; incloses the top of the producer. A feed hopper 5 is shown supported centrally on cover t. The producer may be filled with coal from an overhead bin 6 having a-slide valve 7 at its bottom directly above hopper 5, or the cover 1- may be bodily removed for lillingpur poses. i

Feeding of the coal may be accomplished by'other means than described, but in any event it is not intended that feeding of coal shall proceed through hopper 5 at inte mittent intervals after the bed of coal has. once been properly fired, but only at the start of operations, and therefore, the hopper 5 and its bell-shaped valvh 8 may be placed out OfcolnllllSSlOll or entirely removed after a zone of fire has been. established at the extreme top of the bed-of coal. Cover plate 4: is also prov ided with suitable openings 9 for poking the fire, and similar poke openings 10 are provi ed at difi'erentelevations in the side wall of the producer. A circular grate 11 is also shown as arranged within the bottom of the producer apart from casing 2, and air and steam or air alone may be introduced into the bed of coal uniformlyat all radial points from the annular chamber 12 surrounding grate 11, the steam or air being admitted into chamber 12 at one or more poihts thr ough suitable pipe connections 14 located at the outside of the producer. A centrally: arranged hood or spreader 15 Is also shown as extending into the producer through briclc. lined bottom 16 for the distribution of air and steam, or air alone, into the bed of coal,

Patented J uly 9, 152112. Application filedJuly 10, 1911. Serial No. 637,590.

the supply of fluid being obtained from pipes 17 having pressure connections, or the air and steam may be drawn into the prod'ucer by suction it the producer is worked on the suction principle.

' 'lhe'bottom 16 has one or more openings 18 provided with slide valves l9'to remove the contents Qf-the preducer iii-small huair tit ies, whether in the form of ashes or other refuse, but in view of the fact that no ashes format the bottom ofthe, producer until the finish of operations'-following'my proc-" ess, no interruption of the production of gas" ensues; An ash-receiving hopper 'hav1ng a slide valve. 21 may be attached to bottom 16, andan ash c'arryingcar 22 may be arranged to run beneaththe hopper-Q Bottom 16 may also be pivotally' mounted or'proivided with a hinge 23 to swing downward the entire contents'of Now havin in mind a producer of approximately t e kind described, the following steps are taken'by me to produce a clean gas .of. exceptional good composition and heat-val-ue. Thus, my first step is to fill the pro'ducer nearly full of fuel or within a few feetof cover-plate 4 and below gas outlet 25,'the amount of fuel stored greatly exceeding present practices and being .sufiicient to last for several days, a week, or even longer; My second step is now contra-distinguished from present practices by starting a fireion top of the deep bed of coal or in other words, in the extreme upper endof the producer. To accomplish this success- :t 11y and to provide. a top zone of mean-- descent fire of several feet in'depth, or to' a depth sufficient for all purposes of producing a fixed gas,'a draft is induced throughout the entire bed ofcoal, and fresh coalgenerally coke-supplied from timeto time from hopper 5 until this particular'zone of fire is established. At this 'timethe prodnets of combustion are permitted to escape through draft stack 26. After a gas-proa matter of ducing zone. of fire is once fully developeda ".Eew hours-n'o' further coal is supplied totli'e producer, and the remainder of the run-covering several days or longer-proceeds by the gradual consumption of the coal beneath the zone 'of fire, the fire working downward into the green fuel as fast as it is consumed, or possibly faster.

Poking is also resorted to (but not as often as in other processes) 'to promote uniform combustion of the fuel and to maintain a uniform deptho'f the zone of fire as it works downward, and the amount of air and steam passing through the body of green fuel must be regulated. to correspond with the gradually decreasingdepth .of the bed of coal to also maintain a uniform depth of 'zone of fire. In poking and forcing or passing steam or. air through the green fuel, precaution must also be taken toprevent the fire irom working downward too fast to avoid' the formation of tar and to producea clean gas of consistent composition and uni form quality; The elimination. of coal;

charging steps during the production of the gas obvipusly' prevents ayariationin the vantage lies in the maintenanc candescent zone,- the upper layer "of which always remains undisturbed in an unvary-y nag state of combustion and incandescence to;

condition of the fire, and consequently avoids a'variation in the composition of the gas, generated,and by maintaining an un= disturbed zone of fire constantly on top of a 'bed of green fuel the forcing of steam andv air through the same from below entirely breaks up the tar lampblack and other waste'pr'o'ducts, such carbon vapors, and'tran'sforms them into a useful'fixed gas free from tar and other'im purities and fit to be piped long distances. After the-zone. of fire has worked down to as condensablehydrothe bott om of the producer, say at the close of several days operations, the usual'final,

steps are taken to: stop gas-producing opera- 'tions and the ashes and contents of the prod'ucer may then be dumped and carted away. Then the producer is cooled ofi and agam charged for another runof' long duration, and the above cycle of operations repeated. U My process and apparatusre uires'less at- 'tention andcarc than,other met ods and a n paratus known to me, there being a great saving of labor and time in eliminating the chargmg operations as now generally practised andthe constant remoyal and handling of ashes; but doubtless, the greatest ado an ctively combine the oxygen of the air I with thecarbonito form carbon dioxid C0,,

through to'sreduoethis to and in passing M carbon monoxid CO,-which' escapes w th the hydrogenand carbon monoxidiand wlth loo ' the nitrogen which came in with the air to" produce-the resultant fixed gas of exceptional quality and high heat value of my process. i

The producer as herein described may be modified in many respects to meet various requirements of difierent installations or pes of plants -a pressure plant,l or a suctlon plant.

In a pressure plant using my process, the

air pressure will vary from 2% inches to per haps 5 inches, require. five to eight inches;measur1ng a five inch pressure as equal to a column of whereas other types usually water five inches deep. The average steam pressure required-is less than that usually employed'in other processes, .varying from 15 to 60pounds dependent upon the kind and quality'of' fuel used. In the matter of the amount of fuel transformed into gas per square foot of area of thediameteryof the producer, I findeight to eleven pounds per square footof area a desirable rate, or the margin may be 4 to'12 pounds.

The size and diameter of the producer may vary considerably, but'the one I have operated successfully is approximately fifteen feet high and twenty-eightinchesinternal diameter, inside the bIlOk wall. This sizeproducer I roughly rate as a twentytainthe cubical volume required to retain the requiredamount of fuel for each run. The two types above mentioned are of ample size to hold suiiicient fuel to last ap proximately seventy or eighty hours, or a we'eks run. As to the temperature of-the incandescent zone, I roughly estimate my producer to operate at a temperature of from 1800 to 2150 F., or about 100 to 125 Fahrenheit higher than in other average types.

lVhat- I claim is:

1. A process of producing a fixed gas from bituminous coal or other fuels, consisting in storing a deep bed of fuel in a gas producer and in maintaining a zone of incandescent fire at successively lower elevations throughout the day and from day to day for a fixed period without substantial variation of the condition of the fire, and in passing steam and airthrough the green bed of fuel from the bottom upward and through said zone of fire.

2. A process of producing a fixed gas of good and uniform quality, consisting in charging a gas producer with a deep bed of fuel, then firing vthe top layer of said bed of 'coal with additional fuel until a top zone of incandescent fire is fixedly established, then continuously producing gas by the passing of steam and air under regulation through the bed of coal from the bottom upward and into said zone of fire .to gradually work the zone of fire downward over'a period of several" days withoutfurther charging of the fire with fuel and until all the fuel in the producer is consumed.

3. A process of continuously producing a fixed gas of uniform composition, consisting in storing up a bed of fuel sutiicient to burn continuously without replenishment for a period of several days or longer when fired from the top and in igniting said bed of fuel at its top and working a zone of fire downwardly substantially as fast as complete combustion will permit without the formation of tar by introducing air and steam or. air alone into the bed of coal from below.

4. A process of producing a fixed gas of uniform quality for a continuous period of several days 'or longer, consisting in filling a gas producer of deep dimensions with a single charge of fuel reaching substantially to its top and in firing the top strata of fuel and then working a zone of fire gradually downward and without adding fuel or removing the ash until all or substantially all the fuel is consumed, and in introducing air and steam in regulated amounts into. the bed of fuel from below to correspond with the gradually decreasing depth of said bed' in establishing and maintaining .a top zone of fire with an up-draft and without introducing further fuel after the zone of fire becomes incandescent.

7. A process of producing gas consisting in filling a producer of desired dimensions with a charge of fuel and establishing a top zone of fire and maintaining the same at successively lower elevationswith an updraft for a recharge of uel. v

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

. FORREST E. FINK.

Witnesses:

' Ross C. SHARRooK, O. W. KENNEDY.

iperiod of several days without 

